‘Mayday’ Review: Kenneth Branagh Steals The Show From Top Gun Ryan Reynolds In Skydance & Apple’s Wild Buddy Action Comedy That Should Have Been In Theaters

David Ellison keeps pledging that Paramount and Warner Bros will release 30 movies a year each if the infamous ParaBros merger goes through. Hopefully they will even be good movies. That would be nice. But with Skydance and David Ellison as producers of the raucously entertaining, big-scale, star-driven action comedy Mayday, they have missed the opportunity to start making good on that pledge with a movie that theaters and audiences would kill to see on the big screen. Alas, this Top Gun-inspired Russia vs. America Cold War buddy movie is strictly a streaming affair starting Friday on Apple TV. Bummer. Ellison should have been the hero and convinced Apple to team with Paramount like they did on the theatrical juggernaut F1 with Warner Bros and put this in the biggest venues possible. Missed opportunity, guys. Coming from the writing-directing team of John Francis Daly and Jonathan Goldstein (Game Night, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves), this is a throwback to the big-scale action comedies that ruled the ’80s and ’90s. Think Top Gun-meets-Midnight Run with a Russian chaser, and you have Mayday. Watch on Deadline Maverick-style U.S. Navy fighter pilot Troy “Assassin” Brennan (Ryan Reynolds) is in bad shape after his hotshot plane is shot down while on a surveillance mission over Russian territory. Managing to survive (barely) but injured and unconscious, he finally opens his eyes and finds himself in a lone cabin in the middle of snowy-nowhere Siberia, where he has been rescued by eccentric Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh). By the looks of the interior, he appears to love everything Uncle Sam serves up, and seems to have a Top Gun VHS tape on a continuous loop in the background. How perfect that Troy, the epitome of Tom Cruise Navy style, magically turns up for him to nurse back to health with his uniquely Russian recipes. RELATED: Kenneth Branagh On Moving From Shakespeare To Action-Comedy In ‘Mayday’: “I Thought Zach Galifianakis Should Play The Part, But I Was Very Pleased They Asked Me Turns out Nick is not just any hero in this moment — he is a disgruntled ex-KGB agent. Troy attempts an escape once he realizes where he is but soon discovers Nick has hidden martial arts talents. Unfortunately, Troy now has the Russian establishment on his tail. To evade them, particularly the dogged KGB operative Alexander Volkov (Polish star Marcin Dorocinski), time is of the essence before the Russians can nab a prize catch. Nick agrees to get Troy to the American Embassy thousands of miles away in Moscow on the condition that Troy arranges to let him defect in return. This sets up a wild road trip through the uncharted wilderness and all sorts of obstacles for the pair that includes a harrowing train ride from hell and eventually the choice set piece of the annual Mayday parade, where the Soviet Union shows off its most imposing weaponry. But chaos ensues when Nick and Troy hijack one of those parade vehicles that just happens to be equipped with a gigantic nuclear bomb. This makes for one of the most unusual — and fun — chase scenes I have seen recently. Daly and Goldstein drive both the action and comedy in style for this sort of thing, but it is the chemistry between the two leads that really makes it cook. Reynolds looks sharp in Navy white and is perfectly cast as a top Top Gun pilot, but it is Branagh — not known for his cred in this genre — who not only convinces in the action arena but makes Nick a likable, pop culture-loving character who goes toe to toe with Reynolds and then some. Branagh is an actor who seemingly can do it all and proves it here by stealing every scene he is in. Dorocinski nicely underplays his normally stereotyped Russian heavy, and in and out briefly are a fine Maria Bakalova as Nick’s estranged daughter and David Morse as Troy’s dad. Production values and the aerial work are top of the line in a movie that, again, should have been served up as a communal experience in movie theaters. Ironically that is how Apple insisted the press see it, so why not everyone else? It worked for F1! Producers are Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Ashley Fox, Johnny Pariseau, Goldstein and Daley. Title: MaydayDistributor: Apple Original FilmsRelease date: September 4, 2026 (streaming)Directors-screenwriters: Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis DalyCast: Ryan Reynolds, Kenneth Branagh, Marcin Dorocinski, Maria Bakalova, David MorseRating: PG-13Running time: 1 hr 50 mins